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Monday, July 22, 2013

Welcome back to Our Creative Corner. Laura here bringing youour first Top Talent! Today we are so happy to welcome Paula from Ephemera's Attic.

Paula is a wonderful artist who is amazingly talented and creative - Her work is always so gorgeous. We are so honoured that she is here today to show you all something she has made especially for her Top Talent appearance, but first lets find out a bit more about her.........

1.Where do you live?

St. Neots in Cambridgeshire

2.How long have you been crafting and what made you start crafting?

I’ve been crafting most of my life really, I’ve always drawn and
painted, dabbling in and out quite a few other crafts over the years, macramé
(anyone remember that!) candle making, encaustic art, silver smithing and
jewellery making. I started paper crafting a few years ago and instantly fell
in love with stamping and altered art. I bought a sewing machine last year to
use in my paper crafting, but now I have become addicted to fabric too and I
love incorporating stamping in my fabric creations and just recently I’ve started
patchwork & quilting. I can’t imagine not crafting in some form or another
as it’s integral part of who I am, I just wish there were a more hours in the
day to fit it all in.

3. What do you enjoy most about stamping?

There are loads of
things, but probably the versatility, that stamping has to offer, I love to
stamp on fabric and TAP(transfer artist paper)as well as paper.

4. If you could only use three craft supplies for the rest of your life,
what would they be?

Oooh that’s a tough one. My Inktense pencils would have to
be one as they are so versatile and get used regularly and a sketch pad. Finally my sewing kit (a bit sneaky as it has lots of goodies in it!)

5. If you have lost your Mojo, how do you go about getting it back?

My
mojo does seem to desert me quite often and I find visiting my favourite blogs
really inspiring, it helps to get my creative juices flowing again. There are
so many talented bloggers out there sharing their ideas, the crafting world is
such a friendly place.

6. What is the most satisfying/exciting..... the designing or the end
result? Most of my projects seem to evolve along the way, and are never how I
envisaged them in my head, I tend to start with an idea and usually go off at a
tangent. I enjoy both the creative and usually very messy process and the end
result.

7. How would you describe what it means to have an
"Artistic Outlook" on life?

I’ve always felt the need to be creative from a very early age and
if anything the feeling has intensified the older I get. Even when I’m not
crafting I’m thinking about future projects and can get very grumpy when I’m
not able to craft. I usually manage to sneak some sort of crafting with my when
on holiday too, obsessive or what LOL!

.......And now we shine the spotlight on this fantasticsign Paula made for her 'Crafty Corner' as her crafting area is affectionately called.

Thank you so much Paula for being our 'Top Talent' today and sharing such an inspiring creation with us.

Please go along to Paula's blog and take a look at how she made her 'Spotlight' sign....along with all her other wonderful creations - I am sure she would love to see you there! - Ephemera's Attic

Would you like everyone to see your work here under the 'Our Creative Corner' Spotlight? You could be here as a future 'Top Talent' with the spotlight shining on something you have created! All you have to do is enter our Captured Memories challenge. There is one more week of the current challenge left, so why not have fun
creating! Make anything you like - but remember it must contain a photograph....

We all hope you will come back to see us on the 1st August when Alison will be presenting her challenge for all of you.... See you then!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Welcome back to our mid-month dose of inspiration for our Captured Memories challenge. You are all so creative and we are seeing some wonderful entries into this challenge! We hope the rest of you will find the time to play along with us for this challenge. You can find all the main details, challenge rules and the linking feature in this post.Here are the Captured Memories samples from the other half of our design team:

My memories piece is actually a very recent photo. A couple of weeks ago my husband and I had a little get-away to Sanibel Island on the west coast of Florida. I took the photo on the beach, printed it in black and white and then aged it with Vintage Photo distress ink. I made a sea scape background using Artistic Outpost stamps and added a wonderful verse...a great memory of a wonderful escape weekend.

I added to the challenge of using a photograph by challenging myself to try a layout - not something that I really do. In fact, it has ended up as a canvas, but that's the way it goes sometimes! I wanted to play with some Pion papers that I was lucky enough to win recently, and what with those and my usual texture paste and distressing, I had an absolute ball! Do come and check out the romantic story behind the photo too...

I created a mixed media necklace using a childrens photograph that (very likely) shows my great-grandfather and his brother. I have a lot of fond memories for my "Opa-a" (as I used to call him when I was little), whom I had the great luck to know, as he got 93 years of age. He used to take me to his study, crammed with lovely old furniture and paintings and his fantastic old style communications receiver with the names of all the great cities in the world on it....it always felt like I had entered a world of its own. Our very own secret place.

When I saw Linda's challenge I got my box of family photos out and had a great trip down memory lane. My Brother lives 5,000 miles away, so I don't get to see him very often these days and I just love this photo. It brought back wonderful memories. The sentiment is just so true for the two of us and really makes me smile. I made this cabinet card for his next birthday, hope it gives him a smile too!

There are two more weeks of this challenge left, so why not have fun
creating something that contains a photograph
The deadline for this challenge is Sunday 28th July at 11.55pm.
The winner and Top 3 from this challenge will be announced on the 8th August.
The winner will be invited to appear as 'The Top Talent' here at OCC,
have a short interview (so we can find out all about them) and there
will be a 'Spotlight' on a new project they have created.
The winner's Top Talent interview and creation will be on the 22nd September.
Make sure you join us again for those dates and remember that the next
challenge will go 'live' on 1st July when Alison announces her theme.
Come and see what surprises are in store for you and where your next OCC
challenge journey will take you!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Welcome back to Our Creative Corner. Jenny here to bring you all the winners from last month's 'Recipe' challenge.

We were thrilled to get 81 fantastic entries for this challenge and the standard was incredibly high again. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time and effort to enter; it was very much appreciated by the whole team. You gave me such a tough job too. How to pick a Winner and Top 3? but this needed to happen, so here goes...

The black and white cover caught my attention immediately, but it was as the inside pages unfolded that all the magic became apparent. A stunning choice of images was perfectly complimented by stamping, stitching, layering and lace, and it was all held together by the monochrome colour scheme. This was the first time I had seen Kasia's work and I can assure you, it won't be the last!!

And now for the Top 3 (in numerical order). Well done to all of you...

As a huge fan of mixed textures I was drawn to the leather effect embossed cover, clay heart, fabrics and metal elements, all of which combined to create a beautiful little book complete with leftover paper pages. Again, I will be watching out for Ana's creations in future.

I love that Jessica embraces the use of colour with a passion and has truly transformed this... (no, you'll need to hop over and take a look to see what it started life as). The little polymer clay flower, the lace and the ribbon all helped to make this dress fit for any princess.

Alexa entered a couple of scrapbook layouts into the challenge and this one definitely needed a closer look. Can you believe those stamped bees are covered in beeswax, the gilded honeycomb is good enough to eat, and I love the personal and poignant sentiment.

Well done to the latest 'Our Creative Corner' Winner and Top 3! Feel free to grab your badges from the sidebar - we hope you will proudly display them on your blogs.

Don't forget, the 'Captured Memories' challenge is now in full swing. Take a look at what it's all about and get creating/entering. Who knows, you too could be joining Kasia in our 'Winners Corner' next month and be invited to create something for a special spotlight feature as a 'Top Talent'!!

See you all back here on the 15th July for more inspiration from the other members of our talented Design Team. You really don't want to miss seeing what they have in store...

Monday, July 1, 2013

Greetings friends! Linda here to welcome back to a brand new challenge at Our Creative Corner. We had another fabulous array of entries for Jenny's Recipe challenge and we have had a terrific time visiting all your blogs and drooling over your makes. Thank you so much to everyone who played along with us! Jenny will be back with the winners' post on July 8th so be sure to stop back that day.

Our challenge theme for July is Captured Memories. Memories are fleeting but photographs help us hold dear those special people and times in our lives. Our project this month is for you to share a special memory captured in a photo. All types of art are welcome: cards, tags, canvases, mixed media, etc., but your project MUST INCLUDE A PHOTOGRAPH. (NOTE: Your photograph does not need to be a personal photo. A vintage photo from the internet is also acceptable.) Let's see how our design team has shared their captured memories.

Getting this card right was very important as it was destined for my wonderful husband. Still on my 'Italian' odyssey, I was transported back to a very happy family holiday on the Isle of Wight. We visited Queen Victoria's holiday home, Osborne House, built in the Italianate style. Obviously we took loads of photos and the one on this card lent itself perfectly to getting an 'Instagramatic' style photo treatment. It set the colour scheme and style for the whole card, and taught me a lot about various mixed media products.

For the 'Memories' challenge, I have returned to my collection of family photos which are very dear to me. I have chosen a photo of my paternal Grandmother when she was approx 19 years old. I have previously shown her in a blog post when she was a child and it's lovely to look at her over the years as she becomes a young woman, wife and mother. This is very much a mixed media piece and you'll never guess what the base looked like before it had a make over!

Despite always enjoying making albums I decided to make something very different here. I made a Memory box for my daughter. Her style is very pink and feminine with a passion for vintage items.
She never throws anything away, claiming that everything she keeps is a treasured memory - but at least now she has a vintage style box where she can keep those little treasures.

Loved the idea of Captured Memories as I really enjoy making mini-albums and thought this one was so easy to construct before the fun part of decorating it began. Its really amazing what you can do with an empty dishwashing tablet box and four rubber bands!

Don't believe it can be that easy? Come on over to my blog here and find out!

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Bring your creations to Our Creative Corner and you could be our WINNER!
(Please check out the rules at the end of this post to make sure your entry can be accepted).

Challenge Winners

The winner and Top 3 from this challenge will be announced on the 8th August.

The winner will be invited to appear as 'The Top Talent' here at OCC, have a short interview so we can find out all about them and there will be a 'Spotlight' on a new project they have created. This will take place on September 22nd.

We have a page on this blog called 'Winner's Corner'. The winner's name will be featured on this.

For entrants who have won our challenges and been featured as 'Top Talent' three times there will be a very special 'Gold Winner' badge for you to display proudly on your blog - now there's a challenge for you.

Of course, there's only one way to collect your badges and have your name placed in 'Winner's Corner' for all to see - let's see your entries!

Remember, Jenny will be back on the July 8th to announce the winner of the 'Recipe' challenge, and on July 15th the rest of the Design Team will showcase their creations for this month's challenge.

And now for THE RULES:

1. You may enter this challenge a maximum of THREE TIMES - they must be different creations and posted on your blog separately.

2. If you post any more than three entries they will sadly have to be deleted.

3. NO back-linking. Please do not enter a creation that was published on your blog before the start of our challenge.

4. Please link to your actual post, not just your blog. If you just link to your blog the team will not be able to find your entry and leave any comments.

5. Please include a link to our challenge in your blog post.

6. You may combine our challenge with as many other challenges as you wish.

7. If you want the team to comment on your entry then you have to link to a site that does not require us to sign in/become a member.